Sides and roof are up

From now on I'll refer to the chook shed as the "garden shed", given that when I'm a doddery old man hobbling around with a cane and Zimmer frame the shed will be the base of operations for my vegetable garden.  I'll keep my garden tools in the shed and will sit in front of it enjoying a crisp wine while enjoying the views to Kalamunda and watching the cabbage moths and aphids decimating my vegetable crop.

The Garden Shed viewed from below

Storage Side, Pending Strong Door

Garden Tools, Fertilizer, Tables, Chairs,etc Stored Here

Storage Left, Garden Tools & Equipment Right

View of Rear of Shed

Stephen was at my door at 8.30 AM yesterday and worked with me until 6.30 PM putting up the sides to the garden shed.  The effort left him tired enough to send him to an early night at 8.30 PM.  Today he stayed long enough to put up the crucial first roof sheet.  That being done he left with my effusive thanks for his wonderful assistance to me. With his help we did in one day what it would have taken me 3 days working alone.

After Stephen left I put on a second roof sheet on my own as planned.  That went so well that I put on another ... then another ... until the entire roof was up at 1.30 PM.

At the end of the job I had one roof panel and five vertical panels to spare.  It is obvious that I made a mistake in trusting the "expert" at Midalia Steel calculate the quantities.  That represented a surplus 13 meters of  Colorbond sheeting at a cost of about $180.   He can't blame me.  I provided a photograph of the shed frame and extremely accurate plans,

Even the delivery of the materials was screwed up.  I decided to resist my impulse to do it myself and arrange for Midalia to deliver the material at a cost of about $40.  The truck that delivered it was so large that the driver could not turn into my drive way.  This was a surprise because every previous load for the house - roofing, siding, brick paving, etc - had been delivered up the driveway and on my property.  I asked the driver if he could help me move the load into my property and he told me that he was not allowed to.  He dumped the load about 1 ft from the edge of the road and I was force to move the 24 sheets of metal one by one onto my property.  Then the next day I had to move the sheets one by one  up  to the garden shed.

I had been told twice that I need not be home for the delivery.  I'm a sailor.  Suppose I had been away for a few days while the load of Colorbond was resting at the roadside, easy pickings for a scavenger who would have had a fairly credible defense of "Well, it was at the curb just like all other material for Council pickups."

Had I done it the "hard" way I would have picked up the load at Midalia Steel with my trailer and driven it onto my property half way up the hill to the garden shed, saving me $40, double handling, and carrying the sheets only half way up the hill.

Screw this letting the pro's doing it because I'm 73 years of age.  It's still easier, cheaper, and better doing it myself.

[Note: On 8 March I had a meeting with David Kirkpatrick, Branch Manager at Midalia Steel, Midvale.  David appreciated the feedback on the delivery problem and agreed that it had not been handled properly, and will deal with it.  Regarding the extra sheeting, he showed me that according to their formula (762 mm coverage per 840 mm wide sheet) I required 5.25 sheets to cover 4 meters of roofing, rounded off to 6.  However, I insisted finding out why 5 sheets had given me a coverage of  3950, plenty wide given the overhang shown in the photo that I had presented.  Three of us were discussing the discrepancy then it came to me that the 762 mm coverage does not apply to the edge sheets,  because at the edge nothing has to be sacrificed for overlapping.  David took that on board and I think that he'll factor that in next time.  The extra 5 x 2 meter vertical sheets were accounted as follows.  I used one sheet to fill in the corners, leaving a surplus of 4.  I also picked up an error where I stated that the internal wall was 3.3 meters wide when it was in fact 2.3 meters wide.  According to Midalia's formula this cost me 2 more sheets.  I used a total of 16 vertical sheets and wound up 4 extra, meaning that I received 20 sheets even though I paid for only 19.  The 20th sheet was probably a "cover" sheet that is standard practice for protecting the finish on the top sheet of the load.]

There is still work to do, principally at the corners.  The issue isn't so much insulation and weather protection but rather privacy in the storage side of the shed.  I don't want prying eyes to see what is stored there, although the likelihood of a burgler probing that shed at a far corner of my property within sight my my neighbor Aaron's house is very slight.

Also, I will be visiting the salvage yard to find a good strong door for the storage side of the shed.

But all  she work  will cease until I return from the Fremantle Sailing Club's "Bunbury Cruise" 3-weel cruise into Geographe Bay.  (YES!)